As the components required to build a computer system have reduced in size, new categories of computer systems have emerged. One of the more recent categories of computer systems is the portable or “palmtop” computer system, or personal digital assistant (PDA). A palmtop computer system is a computer that is small enough to be held in the hand of a user and is thus “palm-sized.” As a result, palmtops are readily carried about in a briefcase or purse, and some palmtops are compact enough to fit into a person's pocket. By virtue of their size, palmtop computer systems are also lightweight and so are exceptionally portable and convenient. Further development of PDAs has enabled their use for portable, and even wireless, access to computer networks. The portability and convenience makes such devices ideal for such wireless access to a local area network (LAN) in a dynamic workplace.
On the other hand, because they are relatively small, palmtop computer systems and other wireless devices can be easily lost, stolen or carried home by employees leaving the employ of a company. Although they are not extremely expensive, the loss of physical control of the device can mean the loss of control of access to the LAN and also to the data stored on the device itself. To the owner of the network and the device-resident data, access by unauthorized, and possibly unfriendly, persons could well mean disaster for the company. Consequently, it is extremely desirable to maintain control of access to the device, and thus the network, in the hands of the network manager.
One method for protecting against unauthorized use of a computer system or unauthorized access to information stored in it is to use a password. However, passwords are considered by many users to be vexing and inconvenient, passwords can lock out even an authorized user, and experience shows that passwords can be defeated by unauthorized users.
A more reliable means of determining the identity of a potential user of a network, and thus whether that person is an authorized user, is by the use of biometric data identification. Biometric data is data taken from the measurement of some characteristic peculiar to an individual. A digitized thumbprint is an example of biometric data. Iris scans, speech pattern scans or various body electrical characteristics are also biometric data.
In a system that uses biometric data for identification, a device that reads biometric data scans the relevant measurement of the candidate for identification. The attached system then compares the scanned data with data stored in the system. A match of data sets is then sufficient for identification.
A now-common implementation of such a scheme is the use of a thumbprint scanner which can read the user's thumbprint and determine whether it compares favorably with a stored thumbprint. If the user's data does not compare favorably, the system to which the identifying device is connected refuses to allow access to either on-board data or the network. An iris scanner or a speech pattern reader function similarly, though may be somewhat more difficult to implement. Biometric data readers are sometimes used, currently, on high-security systems but are typically part of mainframe or desktop systems.
More and more, local area networks (LAN)s, particularly in fast-paced “high-tech” industries, are accessed by wireless devices. If access to the network is by a wireless device protected by a biometric data reader, and the device were to be lost or stolen or the authorized user terminates employment, the biometric data and its applicable reader would remain with the wireless device unless there were a means for remotely reprogramming the data resident in the wireless device. Until now, such consideration has inhibited the application of biometric data security to networks accessed by wireless device.